JERSEY CITY – Hillary Clinton, former Democratic candidate for president, former secretary of state and former U.S. Senator, is scheduled to come to Jersey City on Oct. 15 to raise funds for U.S. Senator Robert Menendez’s campaign.

The $5,400-per-ticket fundraiser is scheduled to take place downtown Jersey City and is expected to draw some of the most powerful Democratic supporters in the region. It is also expected to draw protestors from Menendez’s GOP and Green Party opponents.

The Hudson County Democratic Organization threw its support behind Menendez at a large rally on Sept. 6 at the Liberty House in Jersey City, a public demonstration by most, but not all, Hudson County leaders. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and West New York Mayor Felix

Voters wanted a revolution. How'd they get stuck with corrupt Bob Menendez? | Will Bunch

Updated:June 7, 2018 — 2:04 PM EDT

You say you want a revolution? Then you definitely want to see more candidates like Michael Starr Hopkins, a 31-year-old public defender and occasional TV political pundit who — for a brief month or two in late 2017 — toyed with throwing a large wrench into the creaky, oil-leaking machine that is New Jersey’s Democratic Party.

Hopkins’ scheme would have made him not just the youngest U.S. senator since a (former) whippersnapper named Joe Biden back in 1973 but an ardent advocate for progressive causes such as ending the college-debt crisis, supporting a Medicare-for-all health-care system, and legalizing pot.

And here’s the beauty part: A Hopkins campaign — with just a slight nudge from the far-too-influential powers-that-be in the Garden State — would have given New Jersey’s rank-and-file Democrats hope of wiping the slate clean from the embarrassing tenure of their incumbent Sen. Robert Menendez, whose greatest achievement has been showing that taking freebies like jet travel and swank vacations from a millionaire donor seeking political favors is no longer a felony in America’s comatose 21st-century democracy.

Late last fall, Hopkins — who lives in Jersey City — raised about $50,000 from small donors for an insurgent challenge to Menendez. Then he went to major party backers and power players like then-Gov.-elect Phil Murphy and Menendez’s Senate colleague Cory Booker, a 2020 presidential hopeful, to sell them on the power of a fresh face. There would be no sale. Hopkins couldn’t get past the front door.

“They were all very clear that they were backing Menendez — and that was decided even before the Justice Department decided not to prosecute him” a second time after a November hung jury, Hopkins told me this week. He said that many bigger Democratic donors told him they feared “retribution” if they bucked the establishment and gave Hopkins any money. The would-be insurgent abandoned his Senate campaign before it ever got off the ground.

Now Menendez has a Democrat challenging him

WASHINGTON -- Before they can face each other in the general election, both U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and former Celgene Corp. executive Bob Hugin first must overcome opposition from candidates in their own parties.

On the final day for candidates to declare their intention with the state Division of Elections to run in the June 5 primary, community newspaper publisher Lisa McCormick filled to run against Menendez, D-N.J., who is seeking a third six-year term. McCormick announced a campaign for the 2017 Democratic nomination for governor but did not run.

Remember, the unspoken part of this whole story/indictment was Holder/Lynch DOJ payback to Menendez going against the efforts of Obama to normalize relations with Cuba and Iran.

How many other democrat senators were prosecuted like this? He was the easy low hanging fruit to send a message.... and this was a subtle message to Schumer and the other democrats was to shut up with public comments and get in line.

Of course we know the Obama Administration would never compromise the integrity of the DOJ / FBI for political reasons or gain.

Two months after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the federal corruption case against Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and co-defendant Salomon Melgen, the Justice Department on Friday said it wants to retry them — and soon.

“The United States files this notice of intent to retry the defendants and requests that the Court set the case for retrial at the earliest possible date,” reads the one-paragraph notice signed by AnnaLou Tirol, acting chief of the department's public integrity section. “Defendants Robert Menendez and Salomon Melgen have been indicted for bribery and corruption by two separate grand juries properly impaneled in the District of New Jersey. The first trial ended in a mistrial with a deadlocked jury. An early retrial date is in the best interests of the public, and the United States is available to schedule a retrial at the Court’s earliest convenience.”

Menendez, New Jersey's senior senator, is up for reelection this year.

(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — A federal judge heard wildly conflicting stories Tuesday about a prominent Florida eye doctor convicted in a $100 million Medicare fraud scheme. Some former patients said Dr. Salomon Melgen restored their sight for free, while others described painful and unnecessary treatments that left them blind.

Melgen, 63, is facing a possible life sentence after being found guilty of 67 counts, including health care fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients’ files. Evidence presented during his trial earlier this year showed he subjected patients to unnecessary procedures, including sticking needles in their eyes and burning their retinas with lasers.

Melgen also stands accused in a separate federal case of bribing Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey in exchange for favors including visas for his foreign mistresses.

Menendez's "I won't forget you" statement, which he delivered standing outside the federal courthouse in Newark where he was tried, was largely seen as directed at former Sen. Bob Torricelli and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop for mulling bids to replace him in the U.S. Senate (Fulop has denied that he considered a senate run). Menendez is up for re-election next year.

There was a similar scandal when he was congressman, although nothing came of it. Apparently, he rented space to a building he owned to a non-profit group that received federal funding. I remember Auggie Torres writing about this. Clinton was president so nothing happened.

Jury deadlocked. This liberal democrat progressive has more lives than cat!

Menendez trial in turmoil as jurors admit hearing explosive comments

Updated 2:42 PM; Posted 10:43 AM

By Thomas Moriarty and MaryAnn Spoto

NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

UPDATE: Jury says they're deadlocked; will come back Tuesday

NEWARK -- Seven of the 16 jurors and alternates in the trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez raised their hands when U.S. District Judge William Walls on Monday morning asked whether they'd heard or read anything about the case, prompting the judge to take them into his chambers individually to get more details.

The inquiry came after defense attorneys in the trial noted that widespread news coverage of an excused juror's public statements may have tainted the remaining members of the panel.

The NYT did a profile story a couple days ago on the senator's tribulations and trail.

After the web story release, readers commented on how with all the information being provided to the reader, some how there was on "over-sight" by the writer(s) and the editors identifying what political party the distinguished senator belonged too.

That was corrected later in the online version with an amended 4th paragraph. Not sure how they amended the printed story?

The irony that our Governor may get a chance to appoint a new Senator to replace one on trial for corruption, while he was never charged and was exonerated at every level of phony accusations, is amusing.

Once a corruption fighter, Menendez now set to stand trial on bribery charges

As a 20-something political upstart in New Jersey, Robert Menendez sat in a witness box in federal court — so fearful of retribution he wore a bullet-proof vest — and pointed a finger at his political mentor: William V. Musto, the mayor of Union City.

Thirty-five years later, Menendez, now one of the highest-ranking Democrats in Washington, is returning to federal court in the same city in which he became a government witness.

Menendez goes about his business as corruption trial looms next week

JERSEY CITY — A week away from opening arguments in his corruption trial, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Wednesday he has no intention of cutting a plea deal and renewed his call to recess the proceeding so he can attend important votes in Washington.

Asked whether he had faced pressure from Justice Department prosecutors to plead guilty in exchange for leniency at sentencing, and whether he would consider doing so, Menendez laughed.

Worst case scenario, but still fun-case stalls till the election, Murphy gets to do the replacing, and Fulop gets in a steel cage fight with Torricelli over the appointment.

Not sure a Christie self appointment could be described as a best case scenario, he would vote against Trump every time. Which might be fun to watch a couple times.

I would pay to see your steel cage match. Since convicted felons like the Torch qualify, let's throw in Kushner Senior to keep conversation lively... could we get Russian judges?

And the democrats kept Frank Lautenberg on life support long enough to hold the other senate seat for Booker... can he rise from the dead again as an very long shot? Doubtful any of the other zombies on the senate floor would notice.